New Delhi: Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's trusted aide Chhota Shakeel has claimed that his master wanted to return to India after the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, but the government didn't agree, a newspaper report claimed on Saturday.
In an interview to The Times of India, Shakeel in a telephonic conversation from Karachi said that Dawood Ibrahim had wished to return to India after the Mumbai blasts and had even spoken to senior advocate Ram Jethmalani in London, but the Indian government refused.
Jethmalani has also claimed that Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel had offered to surrender to Indian authorities in the '90s, but the then Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar had rejected the offer.
Media reports have quoted Jethmalani as saying that Shakeel had contacted him in London with the offer and had asked that both dons be kept under house arrest during the trial, but the state government had been unable to guarantee the same.
While speaking to the newspaper, Shakeel also touched upon the issue of Chhota Rajan and admitted that Dawood is directly involved in the plan hatched to eliminate his rival.
Shakeel claimed that he was sent to Australia by Dawood to personally lead the attack against Rajan.
Dawood's trusted aide also took a dig at the Indian administration over repeatedly making claims that they would bring back Dawood to India and make him face the law.
"Every time a new government comes, they make the first statement about us. Usko leke aayenge... ghus ke laayenge... Kya halwa hai? Bakri ka bachcha samajh ke rakha hai kya? Lana hai toh usko (Rajan) lao na," Shakeel told the newspaper.
The Narendra Modi-led government has repeatedly said that Dawood is in Pakistan and that India is determined to bring him back.
Pakistan has denied time and again the fugitive's presence on its soil.
